The teenager Yonatan Frankel discovered a 1,600-year-old oil candle on a trip/photo: Israel Antiquities Authority
16-year-old Yonatan Frankel, a student at "Tamar" high school in Hod Hasharon, went out with his class about two weeks ago on an annual trip to Ma'ale Akrabev in the Negev.
When the class stopped for a long lunch break near Masad Zefir, Yonatan began to pick up stones from the sand and examine them.
"One of the stones I picked up was full of soil. I shook it, when suddenly I saw that a pattern appeared on it. Then, I realized that it was a designed object and not a simple stone."
Yonatan gave the candle to the teacher and she passed it on to a road guide, who showed responsibility and made sure that the candle reached the hands of the Southern Negev archeologist at the Antiquities Authority, Alex Freiberg.
Jonathan received a certificate of appreciation for an act of good citizenship.
More discoveries on trips:
A boy found a pebble in the Upper Galilee, which turned out to be an ancient and rare
figurine during a trip to the Negev: A boy found a biblical-era statue of a bare-breasted woman
A 7-year-old boy discovered a 3,400-year-old statue during a trip in the Beit Shan Valley
"Suddenly I saw that a pattern appeared on the stone."
The candle of oil from Zefir/Antiquities Authority, Yuli Schwartz
"I realized that it was a designed object and not a simple stone."
Frankel and the candle he found/Antiquities Authority, Yuli Schwartz
Regards from 90 years ago
The oil candle discovered in Masad Tsefir was made in Petra in Jordan in the 4th-5th centuries AD.
When the candle, which was found partially broken, came into the hands of Dr. Tali Erickson-Gini, a senior researcher at the Antiquities Authority, she was very excited. 90 (!) years ago, by the archaeologist Nelson Glick - also in Mesad Zefir," she says.
"We know that between the actual Nabataean-Roman settlement and the copper mines of Feinan (biblical Punon) in the Middle Arabah - not far from the Ein Yahav settlement of Today, it passed in the 4th-6th centuries, an ancient trade route.
In order to protect the passage of copper and perhaps even gold, a series of masadim was erected between Rosh Ma'ale Akarev and Masad Hatzava, of which Masad Zefir is one of them.
Patrols of Roman cavalry-soldiers guarded the important road.
You can literally imagine how the candle sheds its light on the dark and isolated side where the Roman soldiers stayed," Gini added.
The complete oil candle found in 1934-1935 by archaeologist Nelson Glick/Antiquities Authority, Nelson Glick
Ma'ale Akarev, and headed by Tzafir/Antiquities Authority, Dr. Davida Dagan
The oil candle from Mesad Zefir was created in Petra, Jordan in the 4th-5th centuries AD/The Antiquities Authority, Yuli Schwartz
"I would like to thank Jonathan for his good citizenship," says Eli Escozido, director of the Antiquities Authority.
"Any return of a find to the state treasures can shed significant light (in this case - literally) on our past."
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